TOBIN ARMSTRONG

Armstrong: Man of grace, influence
Laura Bush, Cheney among his mourners

ARMSTRONG - Rancher Tobin Armstrong came from a fading generation, one whose grace, manners and morals - coupled with financial and political capital - helped shape the world as we know it, said speakers at his memorial service Thursday. Such speakers included Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

More than 500 mourners, including First Lady Laura Bush, U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs gathered at the Armstrong Ranch to say goodbye to Armstrong, 82, who died last week of cancer.

During their 55-year marriage, Armstrong and his wife, Anne, were powerful Republican stalwarts. Anne Armstrong served as a national leader of the party and as a Cabinet-level adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, U.S. ambassador to Great Britain and an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush on foreign intelligence.

Despite the couple's political influence, Armstrong went through life without pretension, friends said Thursday.

Speaking during the memorial service, Cheney explained that although Armstrong was comfortable among the world's most powerful people, he was most at home on the ranch, surrounded by friends, family and wide-open Texas spaces.

Cheney, who met Armstrong and his wife 30 years ago, said after the service that during the years, he and his wife, Lynn, had become good friends with the Armstrongs and have spent many weekends hunting together on the ranch.

"If it could ever be said that a man could walk with kings yet keep the common touch, it was Tobin Armstrong," Cheney said.

Amid the Republican elite gathered for the occasion were cattle ranchers from the area and across the state, in three-piece suits, cowboy hats and boots.

While Armstrong was certainly a political force to be reckoned with, he was also one with them.

He spent his life running the 50,000-acre ranch in Kenedy County that was purchased in 1852 and settled in 1882 by his grandfather, John Armstrong III, a Texas Ranger from Tennessee, who was famous for capturing the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin.

His family also shared a close kinship with the neighboring King Ranch, where Armstrong spent the summers of his youth working cattle and socializing with the King Ranch's Kleberg family.

Armstrong's loves were ranching, politics and anything related to cattle, friends said Thursday.

During the years, he has passed that knowledge down to the next generation, Agriculture Commissioner Combs said.

"He was a great mentor, adviser and friend, with a wealth of knowledge about livestock and agriculture," she said. "Inspirational is the best way to describe him."

Thursday, Armstrong's cowboy hat sat atop his simple wooden casket and his empty black cowboy boots were wedged in the stirrups of his horse, tied to a tree in the front yard.

They are big boots to fill, Baker commented during the memorial.

"With boots and a Stetson, Tobin seemed to be 6 foot 14," Baker said.

Armstrong had strong opinions about government, politics and the economy and he was never shy about sharing his views, Baker said.

"I don't think anybody loved life like Tobin Armstrong," Baker said. "Anything he did in life he did with total honesty and integrity. Tobin was a masterpiece."

Mug: Tobin Armstrong; Vice President Dick Cheney; former Secretary of State James Baker III; Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs

Anne and Tobin Armstrong at their ranch in 1999. At Tobin Armstrong's funeral Thursday, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs said Armstrong was 'a great mentor, adviser and friend.'

Corpus Christi Caller-Times
October 14, 2005.



Tobin, an influential 4th generation Texan, cattleman, and managing partner of the Armstrong Ranch, has passed away from complications of cancer. Armstrong grew up on the Armstrong Ranch in Kenedy County, Texas. He was educated at San Antonio Academy, Texas Military Institute, the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. He served in the Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot in the 56th Fighter Group of the 8th Air Force in Great Britain in World War II.

In 1950 he married Anne Legendre of New Orleans. They made the Armstrong Ranch their home except when she served as ambassador to Great Britain.

Armstrong and his family own the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch, established by his great-grandfather in 1852. His grandfather, Texas Ranger John B. Armstrong, captured the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin.

Armstrong made significant contributions to the beef industry. He served on the board of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association for 48 years and was an honorary vice president at the time of his death. He served as president of the Santa Gertrudis Breeders International, was appointed to the National Cattle Industry Advisory Committee by the Secretary of Agriculture, and to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue's Special Advisory Committee on Livestock Taxation.

He also served as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture for Eastern and Western Europe and on the Long Range Planning Committee that consolidated the Livestock and Meat Boards, the Beef Councils and the National Cattleman's Association. He was appointed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary's Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases in 2002.

He traveled throughout Latin America, Africa and Europe to expand foreign markets for American cattle. Boards he served on include POGO Producing Company, the American National Cattleraisers Association, the Foundation for American Agriculture, the Southwest Research Foundation, St. Stephen's School in Austin, the Council of Advisors of the English-Speaking Union, and the Centennial Commission of the University of Texas at Austin. He was appointed to the Texas Historical Commission in 1982. Armstrong was a county commissioner in Kenedy County from 1979 until his death.

Armstrong, a life-long Republican, helped transform Texas into a two-party state. He became Special Assistant for Governmental Appointments for Republican Governor William P. Clements in 1978.

Armstrong received numerous awards including the Soldiers Medal for valor in WWII, the Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the International Stockmen's Hall of Fame of the International Livestock Congress, the Texas Legends Award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the National Cattleman's Beef Association's Swan Family Leadership Award.

Armstrong was fluent in Spanish and was an avid student of history. His hobbies were shooting, fishing, tennis, polo, flying, photography and Mexican folk music.

Mr. Armstrong is survived by his wife of 55 years, Anne, his son Barclay Armstrong and wife Nancy of Houston, his daughter Katharine Armstrong of Austin, his daughter Sarita Hixon and husband Bob of Houston, his son James Armstrong and wife Lucy of Upperville, Virginia, and his son Tobin Armstrong, Jr., and wife Ardon of Houston. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren and a sister, Lucie Carr Armstrong.

He was predeceased by his parents Charles Mitchell Armstrong and Lucy Carr Armstrong and his brothers John B. Armstrong and Charles M. Armstrong, Jr.